Air Conditioner

ABSTRACT

An air conditioner includes a blower case to guide air blown by a blowing fan to an indoor discharge port. The blower case includes a discharge guide space to guide discharged air to the indoor discharge port, and an air distribution member positioned in the discharge guide space to guide distribution of the discharged air. The air conditioner has uniform volume and velocity of air discharged through an indoor discharge port, and suppresses blowing noise from being generated from the indoor discharge port.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.A. §119 of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-0120016, filed on Dec. 8, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present general inventive concept relates to an air conditioner and, more particularly, to an air conditioner, designed to have uniform air volume and velocity across an indoor discharge port.

2. Description of the Related Art

Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2005-18384 discloses an air conditioner which comprises an indoor unit and an outdoor unit provided as an integral component. The air conditioner is formed at a front side with an indoor suction port through which indoor air is drawn into a body of the air conditioner, and at a lateral side of the indoor suction port with an indoor discharge port through which conditioned air is discharged. The air conditioner of the disclosure comprises an indoor heat exchanger inside the indoor suction port to heat-exchange indoor air, an indoor blowing fan behind the indoor heat exchanger to blow heat-exchanged air to the indoor discharge port, and a blower case to guide the air blown by the indoor blowing fan to the indoor discharge port.

FIG. 1 illustrates a blower case of the air conditioner as described above. The blower case 1 comprises a fan receipt space 3 to receive an indoor blowing fan 2, and a discharge guide space 4 to guide discharged air to an indoor discharge port (not shown). The discharge guide space 4 is communicated with the fan receipt space 3. The indoor blowing fan 2 received in the fan receipt space 3 is a typical multi-blade type centrifugal fan.

In such an air conditioner, when the indoor blowing fan 2 is operated, air flows to the discharge guide space 4 through the indoor blowing fan 2 after being heat-exchanged through an indoor heat exchanger (not shown), and is then guided to the indoor discharge port (not shown) at the front side of the body through the discharge guide space 4.

However, since the air circulates in a rotational direction of the indoor blowing fan 2 while flowing from the fan receipt space 3 of the blower case 1 to the discharge guide space 4, the air conditioner has a problem in that the discharged air is concentrated at a lower side of the discharge guide space 4 (a lower right side in FIG. 1). In other words, due to a concentration of the discharged air at the lower right side in the indoor discharge port caused by circulation of air flow, distribution in air velocity is not uniform across the indoor discharge port. In addition, since the air velocity is higher at a lower portion than at an upper portion of the indoor discharge port, blowing noise can occur therefrom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present general inventive concept provides an air conditioner which has uniform volume and air velocity of air discharged through an indoor discharge port, and which suppresses blowing noise from being generated from the indoor discharge port.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept are achieved by providing an air conditioner which includes a blower case to guide air blown by a blowing fan to an indoor discharge port, wherein the blower case includes a discharge guide space to guide discharged air to the indoor discharge port, and an air distribution member positioned in the discharge guide space to guide distribution of the discharged air.

The blower case may include a fan receipt space to receive the blowing fan and communicates with the discharge guide space.

The air distribution member may include a plurality of air distribution plates separated from each other and fixed to an inner surface of the discharge guide space.

The plurality of air distribution plates may be arranged in parallel with a blowing direction of air, and integrally formed with the blower case.

The air conditioner may further include a body having a suction port and a discharge port formed at a front side thereof, and a heat exchanger positioned inside the suction port, wherein the blower case and the blowing fan are positioned behind the heat exchanger.

The blowing fan may be a centrifugal fan.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept are achieved by providing a blower case usable with an air conditioner, including a fan port to contain a fan therein, a discharge guide space adjacent to the fan port to receive blown air from the fan within the fan port, the discharge guide space including air distribution units spaced apart from each other within the discharge guide space to evenly distribute the received blown air.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept are achieved by providing a blower case usable with an air conditioner, including a housing including a fan to intake air from outside through an indoor heat exchanger, an air discharge region to receive the air from the fan and to discharge the air back outside; and air distribution plates distributed at predetermined positions within the air discharge region to evenly distribute the received air while being discharged outside.

The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept are achieved by providing an air conditioner, including a blower case including a fan to intake air from outside, an air discharge region to receive the air from the fan and to discharge the air back outside, and air distribution plates distributed at predetermined positions within the air discharge region to evenly distribute the received air while being discharged outside.

The air conditioner may further include an indoor heat exchanger positioned adjacent to an indoor side of the blower case such that the air being taken in by the fan passes therethrough; and an indoor discharge port positioned adjacent to the air discharge region to receive the evenly distributed air from the air discharge region and to discharge the air back outside.

The the air distribution plates may be positioned at predetermined angles with respect to each other.

The air distribution plates are integrally formed with the air discharge region.

The air distribution plates are fixed to the air discharge guide region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a blowing fan of a conventional air conditioner;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an air conditioner in accordance with an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the inner configuration of the air conditioner; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a blowing fan of the air conditioner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are described below to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, an air conditioner according to the present embodiment includes a body 10 having a rectangular shape. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the body 10 includes an upper case 11, which includes an upper side and opposite sides integrally formed with the upper side, a bottom panel 12, a front panel 13, and a rear panel (not shown). When installing the body 10 into a building, the front panel 13 is positioned at an indoor side, while the rear panel is positioned at an outdoor side.

The front panel 13 of the indoor side is formed with an indoor suction port 14 and an indoor discharge port 15 to provide suction and discharge of indoor air, and the upper case of the outdoor side is formed at the upper and opposite sides with an outdoor suction port 16 to provide suction of outdoor air. Although not illustrates in the drawings, the rear panel is formed with an outdoor air discharge port.

An indoor heat exchanger 17 to provide heat exchange of indoor air is positioned inside the indoor suction port 14 of the front panel 13, and an indoor blowing fan 18 to provide blowing of indoor air is positioned behind the indoor heat exchanger 17. The air conditioner further includes a cover 19 which is positioned behind the indoor heat exchanger 17 and has an air suction port 19a to guide air passing through the indoor heat exchanger 17 to an inflow side of the indoor blowing fan 18, and a blower case 20 which is positioned behind the cover 19 to receive the indoor blowing fan 18 while guiding air blown by the indoor blowing fan 18 to the indoor discharge port 15.

In addition, a control box 30 in which various electronic components are received is positioned near the indoor discharge port 15, and an adjusting handle 31 is positioned below the indoor discharge port 15 of the front panel 13 and connected with the control box 30. A partition plate 32 is positioned behind the blower case 20 to divide an inner space of the body 10 into an indoor side space and an outdoor side space.

The outdoor side space of the body 10 (behind the partition plate) is provided with an outdoor heat exchanger 33 and an outdoor blowing fan 34 to provide heat exchange and circulation of outdoor air. The air conditioner further includes a motor 35 to drive the indoor blowing fan 18 and the outdoor blowing fan 34, and a compressor 36 to compress a circulating refrigerant, which are positioned behind the partition plate 32.

The blower case 20 surrounding the indoor blowing fan 18 has a parallelepiped-box shape, the front side of which is open, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The blower case 20 is provided with a fan receipt space 21 to receive the indoor blowing fan 18, and a discharge guide space 22 to guide discharged air to the indoor discharge port 15. The indoor blowing fan 18 is a multi-blade type centrifugal fan, and the fan receipt space 21 is configured to surround an outer periphery of the indoor blowing fan 18. In addition, the fan receipt space 21 communicates with the discharge guide space 22 such that air flows to the discharge guide space 22 via operation of the indoor blowing fan 18. The discharge guide space 22 has a round inner surface in order to easily guide air blown from the indoor blowing fan 18 to the indoor discharge port 15 at the front side.

The blower case 20 further includes an air distribution member to guide discharged air such that the discharged air can be uniformly distributed in an overall region of the indoor discharge port 15. The air distribution member can include a plurality of air distribution plates 23 separated from each other and fixed to an inner surface of the discharge guide member 22. The air distribution plates can be arranged parallel to a blowing direction of air so as to guide distribution of discharged air, and can be integrally formed with the blower case 20 during a process of forming the blower case 20.

Operation of the air conditioner will be described below.

When the driving motor 35 is driven, the indoor blowing fan 18 and the outdoor blowing fan 34 rotate. Then, indoor air is drawn into the body 10 through the indoor suction port 14 of the front panel 13 via operation of the indoor blowing fan 18, and is heat-exchanged through the indoor heat exchanger 17. The heat-exchanged indoor air is discharged through the indoor discharge port 15 via the fan receipt space 21 and the discharge guide space 22. At this time, as illustrated in FIG. 4, since air flow is guided by the plural air distribution plates 23 during blowing of the air from the fan receipt space 21 to the discharge guide space 22, the air is discharged in a uniformly distributed state across an overall area of the indoor discharge port 15. In other words, since the air is not only distributed but also restricted in circulation by the air distribution plates 23, the volume and velocity of discharged air are uniform across the overall area of the indoor discharge port 15. Accordingly, the air conditioner of the present inventive concept can reduce blowing noise caused by the discharged air, since it is possible to maintain the volume of the discharged air constant while preventing the discharged air from being concentrated at a specific position of the indoor discharge port 15.

Outdoor air is drawn into the body 10 through the outdoor suction port 16 via operation of the outdoor blowing fan 34, and is then heat-exchanged through the outdoor heat exchanger 33. The heat-exchanged outdoor air is discharged through an outdoor discharge port at the rear side of the body 10.

As apparent from the above description, with the air conditioner of the present inventive concept, discharged air is uniformly distributed by means of the air dispensing plates positioned in the discharge guide space of the blower case, and thus prevented from being concentrated at a specific position in the indoor discharge port, so that air is discharged with uniform air volume and velocity through the indoor discharge port.

In addition, with the air conditioner of the present inventive concept, since discharged air is uniformly distributed across the overall area of the indoor discharge port, it is possible to reduce deviations in air velocity across the overall area of the indoor discharge port (i.e., prevent the air velocity from being increased at a specific position) while maintaining the volume of the discharged air constant, thereby reducing blowing noise.

Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents. 

1. An air conditioner, comprising: a blower case to guide air blown by a blowing fan to an indoor discharge port, the blower case including: a discharge guide space to guide discharged air to the indoor discharge port, and an air distribution member positioned in the discharge guide space to guide distribution of the discharged air.
 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the blower case comprises a fan receipt space to receive the blowing fan, and communicates with the discharge guide space.
 3. The air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the air distribution member comprises a plurality of air distribution plates separated from each other, and fixed to an inner surface of the discharge guide space.
 4. The air conditioner according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of air distribution plates are arranged in parallel with a blowing direction of air, and integrally formed with the blower case.
 5. The air conditioner according to claim 2, further comprising: a body having a suction port and a discharge port formed at a front side thereof; and a heat exchanger positioned inside the suction port, wherein the blower case and the blowing fan are positioned behind the heat exchanger.
 6. The air conditioner according to claim 5, wherein the blowing fan is a centrifugal fan.
 7. A blower case usable with an air conditioner, comprising: a fan port to contain a fan therein; and a discharge guide space adjacent to the fan port to receive blown air from the fan within the fan port, the discharge guide space including air distribution units spaced apart from each other within the discharge guide space to evenly distribute the received blown air.
 8. A blower case usable with an air conditioner, comprising: a housing including a fan to intake air from outside through an indoor heat exchanger; an air discharge region to receive the air from the fan and to discharge the air back outside; and air distribution plates distributed at predetermined positions within the air discharge region to evenly distribute the received air while being discharged outside.
 9. An air conditioner, comprising: a blower case including: a fan to intake air from outside, an air discharge region to receive the air from the fan and to discharge the air back outside, and air distribution plates distributed at predetermined positions within the air discharge region to evenly distribute the received air while being discharged outside.
 10. The air conditioner of claim 9, further comprising: an indoor heat exchanger positioned adjacent to an indoor side of the blower case such that the air being taken in by the fan passes therethrough; and an indoor discharge port positioned adjacent to the air discharge region to receive the evenly distributed air from the air discharge region and to discharge the air back outside.
 11. The air conditioner of claim 11, wherein the air distribution plates are positioned at predetermined angles with respect to each other.
 12. The air conditioner of claim 11, wherein the air distribution plates are integrally formed with the air discharge region.
 13. The air conditioner of claim 11, wherein the air distribution plates are fixed to the air discharge guide region. 